Kenya tops the list of fraud countries
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Kenya tops Africa in fraud rankings according to a report by Smile ID titled The State of KYC in Africa
Kenya tops Africa in fraud rankings according to a report by Smile ID titled The State of KYC in Africa.
In terms of ID fraud, Kenya is the most frequently targeted nation in Africa.
The country was ranked ahead of Nigeria and South Africa, which were ranked second and third, respectively.
This comes almost a year after Kenya was placed top in the 2022 edition, which covered the first half of 2022.
The report states that cases of ID fraud in Kenya significantly increased from 10% in the second half of 2022 to 17% between January and June 2023.
“In the first half of 2023, the national IDs of Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa were the three most frequently targeted types of IDs for fraud relative to other forms of identification across Africa.
“Specifically, in these three countries, national ID cards experienced a higher fraud rate than any other form of ID during the first half of 2023,” read the report in part.
The country recorded the highest number of risks ahead of Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt, Zambia, Senegal, Cameroon, and Cote D’Ivoire.
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According to the report, fraudsters are increasingly targeting the ID, which is used as the country’s primary identification document, to compromise user identity.
“After seeing record-low numbers in H2 2022, fraud in Kenya is rising again. In the first half of the year, fraud attempts grew from 10% in January 2023 to 17% in June 2023. However, even though there has been a significant increase, fraudulent onboarding attempts are still below the figures recorded in H1 2022.
“The recent increase in fraud attempts makes Kenya the highest-risk country for ID fraud compared to the other countries analyzed,” added the report.
To remedy the situation, the state is set to roll out a digital identification card in September 2023 with security features including iris and facial recognition.
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